Art song performances in and around Cape Town.

The Songmakers’ Guild was started in 1994 by a few Capetonians who felt that regular art songs performances in Cape Town would help to build respect and a regular audiences for the attendance of art songs recitals in the traditional Cape Town concert venues.

Although performers from in and around Cape Town have contributed to the majority of concerts since 1994, guests artists have from time to time appeared at the Songmakers’ Guild concerts. To encourage younger artists to strive towards regular performances of art songs in their opera-dominated careers, one concert per year has been used to showcase new voices.

The inspiration for the idea and the name of the society came from the ground-breaking and extremely successful recitals under the title The Songmakers’ Almanack, given by pianist Graham Johnson and four singers during the seventies and eighties in London. The Guild contacted Graham Johnson when they started the society and got every possible encouragement from him.
 
The first recital was held on 20 February 1994 at the Natale Labia Museum in Muizenberg. The performers were Hanna van Niekerk (soprano), Brad Liebl (baritone) and Albie van Schalkwyk (piano). The title of the program was “Aspects of Love” and included a wide variety of repertoire by German, French and South African composers.

2013 CONCERT DATES

17 February
Vanessa Tait-Jones (soprano), Makudupanyana Senaoana (tenor), Albie van Schalkwyk (piano). Programme includes An die ferne Geliebte (Beethoven) and the charming Fiançailles pour rire (Poulenc)

17 March
Sarah-Jane Brandon (soprano) with Albie van Schalkwyk (piano)
Art songs by Schumann, Rachmaninov, Berg, Poulenc, Strauss and Debussy.
NB: This concert will be presented at the SA College of Music and starts at 16h00.

2 June
Minette du Toit-Pearce (mezzo-soprano), Aubrey Lodewyk (baritone), Albie van Schalkwyk (piano). Programme will include A charm of lullabies (Britten) and Chansons gaillardes (Poulenc).

11 August
Violina Anguelov (mezzo-soprano), Zanne Stapelberg (soprano), Albie van Schalkwyk (piano). Programme: War Songs

15 September
Michelle Breedt (mezzo-soprano) and Nina Schumann (piano)
A programme of Schubert songs as featured on their new CD

13 October
Sabina Mossolow (soprano), Brad Liebl (baritone), Albie van Schalkwyk (piano). Programme includes Debussy’s Baudelaire songs and The songs and proverbs of William Blake by Benjamin Britten.

10 November
Singers and programme to be confirmed.

2012 CONCERT DATES

26 February
Soprano Megan Kahts and pianist Albie van Schalkwyk

15 April
‘New Voices at the Guild’: Maudée Montierre & Vanessa Tait-Jones

3 June
Zanne Stapelberg, Minette du Toit-Pearce & Albie van Schalkwyk in ‘Ravel Exotique’

16 September
To be confirmed

28 October
To be confirmed

25 November
To be confirmed

A selection from the programmes since 1994

French Connection
English Connection
Hungarian Connection
Women composers
Tributes to Brahms, Mahler, Fauré, Schubert, Pieter de Villiers,
American Connection
Songs from Eastern Europe
South African composers featured: Hendrik Hofmeyr, Peter Klatzow, Pieter de Villiers, Hubert du Plessis,
Four women (Schumann, Strauss, Milhaud & Du Plessis)
Sacred Spring
Settings by Heinrich Heine
Settings by Goethe
Aspects of love
Humour in music
Night and Dreams
Schubert Winterreise
Songs of travel
Wolf Spanisches Lieberbuch extracts
Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch
Man and his Maker
Schubert Die schöne Müllerin
Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn extracts
A woman’s life and loves
Alma Mahler and her men
Schubert 200 years
Gypsy songs (Liszt, Brahms, Wolf, Janacek)
From the new world
Songs from the Slavic lands
Mahler-Strauss-Wagner
Christmas songs
Hungarian Connection
Cabaret songs
Schubert posthumous songs
Gravity and levity